


Dogfight over Gabal

by HarkranSteiner



Category: Original Work
Genre: Outer Space, Planet killers, Space Battles, Space Opera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:09:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25670356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarkranSteiner/pseuds/HarkranSteiner
Summary: The Dunnie are the elite space fighters of the human nation, trained to battle across star systems as pilots or to navigate the wormhole network as carrier crew. Named after the mischievous English fable of the disappearing horse, they are raised to know all forms of transport.





	Dogfight over Gabal

Gabal system, orbiting Velestrius, E10  
Ye’ow galaxy, Ursa Major supercluster  
A superweapon shot by the pilot’s cabin, coming within 5,000 meters of the oddly forked ordinance as the pilot dived out of its way. The hammerhead one man fighter was at the fore front of combat, armed with 2nd best ranged missiles and sapilon emitters. The pilot gritted his teeth as the superweapon detonated against a carrier. The Matt grey carrier with its blue interior light was struck by amplified fermionic condensates in a plekton flip. This extreme range missile had frozen the impossibly hard hull of the carrier and stopped all chemical reaction. Many of the crew would die as their cells were starved of even oxygen.  
The fighter accelerated across the star system to escape, crossing 50AU in mere seconds. Turning his fighter around, he and his squad charged back straight into the other fighters they were engaging before the missile flew by. The battle was across the entirety of the star system. As the megastructure sticking out of the sun engaged the 8 Dankanan carriers in orbit of the surviving inner planet, the fighters warred across the entire outer/inner planets. The pilot and his wingmen bolted their fighters into four enemy fighters obliterating them.  
"Tys bail, bail!" said the pilot.  
They split and jumped to breakneck speed as another lesser superweapon off course hit a moon around the nearby gas giant. The weapon released a titanic pryoclaustic cloud that rained down degenerate matter pulses and coterminous phages. Biohazard icons appeared in his Sutton hoo display as he looked at the doomed moon. His squad leapt again across the star system, appearing in orbit of the colony planet. They were just in time to see the Dankana carriers take a direct strike from a beam weapon the megastructure sticking out of the star launched. The planet was awash in light for several minutes.  
"Zabe to Huim, carrier's taking a beating. Visible loss of portal shields on Ugo. I can see the hull superheating. Moon Ollantis is a biohazard" said the pilot.  
A chirp was all he got in confirmation.  
"Hey Zabe! Is that Stantion's ship?" said the wingman.  
"Yeah, Tysini" said Zabe.  
He gave a thoughtful look at the Dankanan carrier with the superheated hull.  
"Head in the fight! We're 30% down and only a billion have evac'd. Inbound 3 fighters!" yelled Tysini on his comm.  
They both banked hard and spun in their acceleration, sapilon emitters firing. Gluon pulses smashed a sensor off his wing. Tysini launched her missile and as the two fighters spun around their course, it detonated amongst their number forcing them to break to avoid it.  
"Zabe!" shouted Tysini.  
"I know, I know, back in-" said Zabe.  
"No the carrier!" she shouted.  
Two Dankanese carriers broke from formation and the other six got closer to cover the missing area. The two carriers turned and Zabe could see weapons placements opening on their flanks. A barrage of missiles collided with them at FTL speeds but they held their position.  
"Lead, this is Zabe, carriers preparing to fire."  
"Affirmative Zabe, Tershlak squad break, break! Hard bolt, we're in the kill box. Tysini take Zabe for a recon of the carrier's."  
"Carrier Huracán this is Zabe, Tershlak squad, requesting Intel. Have all eotin evac'd"  
"In progress Za…(crackle)...at 85% evac, remaining will fight on."  
"Confirmed, re-engaging" said Zabe.  
Zabe relayed the report in his myaloweb but felt a doubt cross his mind as their two fighters jumped across the system, pulverising rocks because of their immense weight from short FTL hops. They decelerated into the asteroids of the first pulverised world. The one hit by the first superweapon.  
"Active scans, looking for survivors" said Tysini.  
"Go wide band and I'll cover" said Zabe.  
On Zabe's monitor Tysini's sensor lit her up, he saw four enemy fighters in the outer planets lock on but all disappeared from 2 waves from the third planet. The carriers must've unleashed luxon flip beams, instantly cancelling the energy in fuel, electrical and life.  
"Found something, 8 cairns and 2 life signs. Transmitting to fleet. Rescue is at the second fleet, still evacuating the moon. They'll be fine" said Tysini.  
His scan monitor was distorted for a second and Zabe rewinded its data feed.  
"Zabe to Huim, detected an anomaly. False reading from the sun. Detected one 4 second reading showing 40% decrease in hydrogen. The things being bled dry" said Zabe.  
"What?" said Tysini.  
A chirp was his only reply so they both darted back into the fray. Returning to the carrier’s side as fighters broke through their lines, the concerted gun fire from the carriers and swarms of fighters made it hard for the enemy to punch through.  
"This is Commander Yunanin, the sun is rapidly destabilising into a red giant. This was their plan all along. With the multiple appearances it forced conflict instead of relocation while they bled the star and hid it from us."  
"Zabe, flank right" said Tysini.  
As her fighter pursed a damaged enemy fighter. Zabe's fighter accelerated and spun round as it arched its path until Tysini's pursuit led the enemy into his sapilon emitter. Blasting the Polypus fighter to pieces.  
"The colony is now preparing to relocate," said Yunanin "all ships continue until the civilians are safe then we're jumping out of here. All damaged carriers withdraw!"  
Zabe looked out at his friend’s carrier, hoping he was okay. The slash of gluon weapons across his hull woke him from his worry. Sending him into a spin to avoid weapons fire, losing his pursuer he was set into a long elliptical orbit to catch his wits.  
"KIA - 40% us, 43% them" said Huim, to the sound of cheers.  
He broke off, pushing back into the dogfights. They were losing the system but they had to buy more time.


End file.
